fall inside a hole

Chin Chin Tram Reissue (1997)

First written April 12, 2024

In 1997 Tomy established October 14th as Plarail Day, releasing a special limited release train on that day every year for many years. The initial few releases were reissues of older Plarail favorites, with the first being the Chin Chin Tram (ちんちんでんしゃ), a reissue of the late 1960s Plarail orange Chin Chin Tram (also ちんちんでんしゃ). An original Chin Chin Tram can be seen in the Plarail Museum.

Plarail Day Chin Chin Tram (ちんちんでんしゃ) (1997)

The Plarail Day Chin Chin Tram is an updated reissue of the late 1960s Plarail Chin Chin Tram depicting an old Japanese tram. The release comes in a slightly shorter than usual box and includes a single standing tree. The "Chin Chin" name comes from the ringing of the tram's bell, which is replicated on the original and this reissue. The original tram was a more orangey color and the cover of the box shows a more creamy tram but in person this version is really more yellow.

The 1960s version actually had liftable pantographs that were fairly fragile that are often missing or broken - this release just makes them part of the plastic tooling, as almost all other Plarail pantographs are. The box also shows that at some stage the tram had a complete cowl on the front, more similar to the real picture's tram, but the final version is raised along the bottom middle. The service number sticker is nice but it would have been cool to have a head mark like the original.

The battery sits in the rear unpowered car with the drive unit and bell mechanism taking up the front power car. The chassis is dated 1997 for this release and has the old curvy Tomy logo and a made in Thailand mark. The I7 sticker indicates this example was produced in September 1997, as I imagine the entire batch of the limited edition were. As far as I know, it has never been said how many of these Plarail Day products are produced each year.

The bell is struck by a small geartrain that is actually friction-driven by the rear left wheel, with a loose-fitting gear around a plastic protrusion around one of the shafts in the Thomas-type gearbox it uses. A second gear with a cam swings a striker back that hits the inside of the bell hanging down from the top of the body shell.

Because the bell mechanism is mechanical and friction-driven from the traction tires, pushing the tram by hand will also ring the bell, even if there is no battery inserted. The motor and gearbox on my example are a little noisy, click on the GIFs to see the video version with sound.

Enoden (えのでん) (1999)

In 1999 the reissue Chin Chin Tram tooling was used to represent the Enoshima Electric Railway's Enoden (an abbreviation of Enoshima-Dentetsu Line) 300 series tram and was sold only at the railway itself. 300 series trams were first built in 1960. The initial release has yellow wheels and no side printing but does have a headmark.

Enoden (えのでん) (2000)

Seemingly selling decently well, an updated version of the Chin Chin Enoden was released in 2000. The design of the box is largely unchanged from the 1999 version, still showing yellow wheels, but it is a lighter shade of green overall.

The updates include changing the wheels to grey and the text added to the side of the tram - the EER is the Enoshima Electric Railway and the 303 identifies it as the formation 303 tram which was rebuilt from a 100 series tram in the late 1950s and used on the line until 2006, being scrapped in 2008. This release comes in a smaller box than most other Plarail releases in both height and length.

The ringing bell mechanism is changed slightly to accommodate the bell being mounted to the chassis instead of the body shell. I am not sure if this change occurred between 1997 and 1999 or 1999 and this 2000 rerelease. The chassis markings seem to be the same for all three releases.

Interestingly, despite being produced after the earlier Chin Chin Tram reissue, this July 2000 Enoden is using the older Mickey Poppo style of coupling instead of the newer Thomas-series style. I do think that the Mickey Poppo style connector is pretty tough but with enough force any toy coupling system can and will be broken by children.

In 2001 a new Enoden Type 300 tooling was introduced and used for several years. Other Enoshima Electric Railway limited products continue to release to this day, with the most recent coming out in early 2024.